How To Eat Your Way Happy

The foods that really boost your mood

Forget chocolate-fueled endorphin rushes and bread-propelled serotonin spikes. When it comes to using food to tweak your brain chemistry for lasting happiness, do what the French do: Reach for fruit, vegetables, and fat. No, not buttery croissants slathered with boysenberry jam or hunks of Camembert. And certainly nothing from le fast food—especially not pommes frites. For the happiest eaters in a brand-new study from France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research, produce, fish, and healthy oils were the recipe for joy—a finding from the more than 12,000 women and men whose eating habits researchers followed for a decade.

Women who ate the most of these good-mood foods were 27 to 36% less likely to feel depressed, while healthy-eating men were an astounding 70% less likely to feel down.

On the other hand, diets packed with processed meats, greasy fried food, snacks, and desserts (sigh) raised women's risk of depression by as much as 59% and men's by almost the same. Why? Nutrition researcher Bonnie Beezhold, PhD, of Benedictine University, says that red meat and poultry are packed with arachidonic acid, a type of omega-6 fatty acid, which your body converts into inflammation-raising proteins called cytokines that more and more research is linking to nose-diving moods. In contrast, the antioxidants in produce and the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids in fish tamp down inflammation.

Unfortunately, the modern diet is higher in omega-6s—from meat and poultry—and lower in fish-based omega-3s, says Dr. Beezhold, who found in a 2012 study that cutting out animal protein for just 2 weeks improved volunteers' moods. A growing stack of food-mood research reveals eating mistakes that could torpedo your mood—and food choices that support happiness.

Here, three flubs and fixes:

Mistake 1: You reach for chocolate when you're feeling low. Yes, you'll feel good, but it's mostly a temporary sugar rush. Mood fix: Have your chocolate, but make it a square of dark and pair it with berries. Both are packed with inflammation-soothing antioxidants. And a recent study from Florida's Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies says that these healthier treats contain compounds that are strikingly similar to the antidepressant drug ingredient valproic acid.[pagebreak]

Mistake 2: You eat a lot of junk food and sweets. Fast and processed foods, commercial sweets, and ice cream treats all supply an overload of saturated fat and trans fats, both of which were linked with low moods in one Spanish study. Eating lots of trans fats may even make you feel irritable and aggressive. Mood Fix: Did we mention fruit, vegetables, and good fats? Order the salad (with vinaigrette, not the blue cheese dressing) and sprinkle a handful of nuts on top. The monounsaturated fat in nuts may protect you from feeling down.

Mistake 3: You eat fewer than seven servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Need more proof that produce is the path to happiness? A new review of surveys of 80,000 people by researchers at Dartmouth College found that the more produce people ate, the merrier they felt. So quit skimping.Mood Fix: Seven a day was the magic number for optimal good-mood effects in this review.